Oceans are many different depths. I could have just as easily called this Mountains of Thoughts but no, the ocean it will be. Sometimes my thoughts are deep and vast, other times shallow and fleeting, just like an ocean. There is the constant pull of the tide, again similar to my thoughts. This is what my blog will be about. Me and my thoughts – good, bad, deep, shallow, stormy, or calm. Join me won’t you?

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Take this job and shove it

This blog is going to get a bit detailed and use terminology that you may not be familiar with. I am sorry about that but this is also a vent to try and keep or put things in perspective for myself.

Remember this old song by Johnny Paycheck? Song #16 I think of that song often as I am working. You see working is all I have been doing lately and after a while it really wears on you. Now I am not talking the normal work and then home chores. I am talking work work, come home eat dinner, and then start working on work work again. We have this huge project going on at work that is all consuming.

Now let me tell you I have been doing computer conversions my entire career. I got to thinking back and even while going to college I participated in my my first conversion. We got pink t-shirts for this one. :-) On and off in all my various accounting and computer positions I have converted various financial systems from one product to another. Some have been accounting systems, some planning systems, and some modeling systems. I have also used various methods of implementation from rapid application development to traditional system development. I consider myself somewhat of an expert in this area since I have done so many types over the years.

This project takes the cake. It is by far the W-O-R-S-T conversion I have ever had the pleasure to participate in.

First we have a group of accountants implementing a financial planning system. Financial planning is NOT accounting. There are a lot of similarities but may more differences. When you try and make a planning system into a detailed transactional system with debits/credits and T accounts it is NOT going to work. The consultants will tell you it is going to work to make the sale but successful implementation is a whole other story. Right now we have the consultants hating the implementation and they do this work for a living.

Lack of decision making. Let's have 20 meetings on one design document and still not have it complete. This is not an exaggeration. Some of our design documents were started in October and are STILL NOT COMPLETE! We are into configuration of the system and using documents that are not complete because management still wants a go-live date of April 15. We have meeting after meeting with no decisions made. Both of the top two accountants (controller and financial planning director) running the project have had major changes - one left the company and one has been out with a mysterious family emergency for a month!

Next are the copious amounts minutia detail. Why use what the rest of the organization is using when you can ask for MORE?!?!?!?!? We are receiving actual data from one system but it isn't in enough detail so we now have to develop an interface with a completely different system to get the exact same data but in MORE detail. Two interfaces to get the same information. That is just one example. There are many many more. Once again the consultants tell us they have never seen such detail in a planning system in all their implementations. We have experienced consultants leaving the project and others admitting they have never done such detail before.

Trying to implement what is best for the company has been frowned upon. At the beginning of the project I tried to express my feelings on what would work best for a successful implementation. The vice president got wind of this (from the controller that has left the project) and I was told in no uncertain terms to quit being so negative about the project. NEGATIVE when my only motive was to make the project succeed. A couple of weeks ago my boss decided to try and suggest some best practices on making this implementation better. Again the same vice president told him not to be so negative. They are telling the people that have done these implementations for much of their careers to shut the hell up. Let's just say it causes a lot of stress and loss of motivation.

I am sure I could type a lot more of the same on what has been going on in my work life but I think this gives you an idea of how bad things are.

This sure has been taking a toll on my life with: mega stress,sleeplessness, chest pains, upset stomach, and headaches. Not a fun thing. So blogging world, this is why I have been neglecting something I enjoy. I sure hope to get back to this on a more regular basis soon.